The 6th Day Project

It was nine years ago. I sat with my coach in a coffee shop on a Friday. He eagerly asked me how my work in developing as a coach was coming. He had helped me identify my desire, discover my gifting and develop a plan to begin coaching others. I had to be brutally honest with him. “I’m off from my full-time job every Friday and Saturday. I say I want to develop my coaching skills and clientele. But my behavior is that I spend most of those off days binge watching television. If that’s the reality of my behavior . . .” He finished my sentence for me, “Then how badly do you really want to develop as a coach?”

He was asking me the right question. Eventually, that question and many others like it, got me to a place where Fridays were no longer mindless T.V. marathons, but rather calculated, well-planned days to develop my dream. I made my dream a 6th day project and so can you. Here’s the question to ask yourself today. How can I work on my dream on a weekly basis? The answer. Block your time and make your dream a regular “6th day” project”.

Let’s start with the philosophy. Tony Robbins has famously said, “We over-estimate what we can accomplish in a day and under-estimate what we can accomplish in a decade.” It’s true. You will never achieve your dream during a single day locked away in your office or even some secluded wooded cabin. On the flip side, neither will you achieve your dream by devoting some attention to it when you have some extra time. The recipe is simple. Planned and repeated work, over time, yields incredible results. Enter the 6th day project. The 6th day project simply says that you must block out time, on a weekly basis, to work on your dream. A year from now, you’ll either be light years closer to that dream or you’ll be in the exact same place you are now. The main difference will be if you decided to set aside the time and execute the plan within those specific times.

Next let’s deal with reality. Not everyone has the exact same schedule. Not everyone can block out Friday, or even Saturday for that matter. You have a demanding job. You have family commitments. You have friends and hobbies. I’m not saying any of these needs to go away. Balancing all the pieces in our life is a myth. Rather, the goal is to manage the tension between all the pieces in your life. I believe every person’s life has rhythms, and no matter what your life looks like, you can identify the rhythms in your life and find regular time to focus strictly on your dream. Like most, you probably waste way more time than you realize. I talked about this just last month, but you can read about managing your time here.

The 6th day does not have to be the true sixth day of the week. The concept is that you must find significant weekly time to block out to work on your dream? How much time? Well, how badly do you want to develop your dream? How many other responsibilities must you manage? These are the kinds of questions that lead you to answer how much time. With that said, however, the time you invest each week must be significant. Can you look at a normal week now and find the time? If you can, why not block that time and begin working on developing your dream methodically, week-by-week? If you can’t maybe you need to look at putting something else aside. All things are not equally important. Just like I had to come to grips with the reality that I was making a weekly television marathon more important that my dream, you may have a similar reality to face.

One warning to give. If you think you’ll get a return on skipping rest and replenishment time, think again. When you look at your weekly rhythm, do not give in to the temptation to cut needed rest time to work on your future dream. The biblical concept of Sabbath is something none of us can circumvent. Just like you need a weekly rhythm of blocked time to work on your dream, you need a weekly rhythm of rest and replenishment. Don’t trade in one for another. Look elsewhere for that 6th day project time.

Well, now it’s time for you to develop and execute your plan. You can start in six months. You can start next year. But why? Why would you sit for one more week and wish you were closer to your dream when you could use that week to get much closer to your dream? If you’re ready to get started now, one of our coaches could help you begin building your 6th day project plan. Just click here to get started. When you’re ready, we’ll be ready to help you get there.